Coltishall Dump Site

And just to be a bit more random, my Dad has a 1934 Singer LeMans, 2 seater. He’s owned it since 1959! 😀

Not really, I bought it as a restoration project and got posted so it was left in the car club hangar, but when at length I managed to return an AOC’s inspection and a busy SWO had swept all away (except for my Gold Seal MG engine which was hidden in a shed). At Yatesbury I helped briefly on the restoration of DG202 when she was rescued from the gate.

John

I know there is a 1934 Singer LeMans (mine) in the dump at Yatesbury and an Austin Seven chassis in the Cottesmore one. :o)

John

There must be an interesting story behind how and why your Singer Le Mans found its way into a hole in the ground at Yatesbury!

Coltishall Dump

Hi Jeff,

I re-dug the dump site you speak of and found the same sort of parts you did,
The Mosquito was RL249 which did a wheels up landing, placed on dump and stripped of useful parts then burnt and pushed it the hole together with general rubbish(1955), many exhaust pipes. No Merlins, they were removed, placed in crates and taken away. Wing spar and oleo legs were recovered.

There are local rumours of other pits in the vicinity which will be looked soon.

Any information will greatly appreciated. We found the Lightning XM213 buried close to the end of the Runway in the bank under about 15ft of concrete and old cars ect. there must be more !!

M.

We had a weekend digging on one of the dump areas at Coltishall some 20 years ago. Whilst following up a local crash we were told by the owner of the field where this dump was of ‘crated Merlins’ being buried.

Although we took this with a huge pinch of salt we put a machine in for the hell of it. The field had that year been cultivated for the first time since the war, and remains of where a Mosquito(s?) had been burnt was still visible with chunks of charred and partially burnt wood, loads of brass wood screws and small metal fittings laying on the surface (The larger remains had presumably been pushed into the pit).

Other than a few more larger pieces of Mosquito wood, the only other aircraft part we found were some odd Merlin exhaust stacks. We did find a couple of bomb fin crates, but the vast majority was general camp rubbish – burnt as well. In one place there was what appeared to be a complete small brick built hut bulldozed in.

This was pre Forster magnetometer days, but we did get readings with our Fisher detector over a wide area.

Jeff

These old sites are still very intrigueing and as the previous recoveries at Little Snoring, Kenley, Cumbria quarry have proved, there’s still a lot to be found but it will probably have to be done with a low profile and taken seriously as well. These things take time and planning not to mention funds.
Where’s smoke, there’s fire
Cheers
Cees

I know there is a 1934 Singer LeMans (mine) in the dump at Yatesbury and an Austin Seven chassis in the Cottesmore one. :o)

John

That sounds interesting! I can understand about the fill as it would go back about 50 years!

Dump Sites

Believe me there is much work being done, there is up to 60-80 feet of infill and rubbish on top, so more info would be helpfull to enable a full excavtion to take place, as you can imagion H&S is a big issue. Funding is an issue also..

Interesting…. I am surprised that there has not been more ofa physical effort to get permission and to investigate these dump sights at the various abandoned and somewhat active fields!